One disadvantage of not knowing whether your baby will be a boy or a girl is that it makes it difficult to decorate their bedroom before they arrive. You don't want too much pink for a boy, or swathes of deep blue or green for a girl!

One way to overcome this problem is to decorate the room in colours suitable for either a boy or a girl, and leave the final decoration until after the baby arrives. If you favour cream throughout your house, then you may opt for the same colour for the baby's bedroom. If you like a splash of colour, or want to create a vibrant nursery for your little one, then why not paint in a bright yellow, baby blue or soft purples?

Once the baby has arrived, add character to your room using vinyl stickers. In the USA these are generally called 'Wallies', but in the UK we are more familiar with adhesive borders and wall decals or wall stickers. Wallies vary in size from just a couple of inches to a couple of feet for really brash ones. As these are becoming more popular in the UK, you will find stickers available in many of the children's themes that you see in soft furnishings elsewhere but you'll also find non-branded imagery based around letters or numbers, animals, fish and many other themes. Search online for a few minutes and you will quickly find that you have hundreds of themes to choose from.

Using wall stickers allows you to personalise your baby's nursery for a girl or a boy after they arrive. They take only minutes to apply and there's no odour of paint, or any other decorating smells, if you apply them after the baby has moved in! They are also usually 'reusable' meaning that they can be taken down and reapplied. This is useful as you buy additional furniture over time and may find that you need to rearrange the stickers away from new items. It also means that you can rearrange the look every so often as your child grows older.

One point to bear in mind when applying wall stickers - make sure that they are out of reach from a young toddler, and nowhere near the cot! Although they are unlikely to create a hazard, you don't really want your little munchkin pulling down all the decorations!

Toddlers enjoy being helpful and you should nurture their enthusiasm, even if you don't honestly welcome their help! Getting young toddlers helping out with chores will give them a great sense of satisfaction, even if the quality of their work may not quite be up to scratch. Having them help out around the house will grow self-esteem and a sense of responsibility.

Don't worry if they don't complete tasks to the standard, or even in the manner, that you hope for and expect, it's simply good that they are doing what they can. They will also need reminding to do their chores, but after a while they will fall into a routine. Heap on the praise as they complete their tasks.

Here are ten ideas for chores that you can have toddlers do for you:-

Dusting around the house with a duster, feather duster or even an old sock on their hand

Picking up their toys and tidying their bedroom

Helping to clear up fallen leaves in the garden

Putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket

Sorting light and dark clothes before they are washed

Pairing up cleaned socks

Putting shoes away neatly

Setting the table

Feeding your pets

Putting away clean cutlery from the dishwasher

Why don't you create a sticker chart at ToucanLearn and reward with a sticker every time your little one helps out around the home?

Sign up FREE to ToucanLearn to follow our activity based learning programme for babies, toddlers and children. We offer hundreds of fun learning craft, games and activities - every activity is aimed at the capabilities of your specific children. Download custom activity sheets, and log their progress in each child's unique Daily Diary!

You'll also find sticker and reward charts, certificates, number and letter practice. Every activity links into the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning and development.

Fill in our Daily Diary to log progress against the EYFS and add photo entries instantly simply by sending them straight from your phone. You can share diaries back with parents or childminders so that everyone can enjoy watching your children develop.